Toby Atkin-Wright

I spend a lot of time in front of my iPhone. It is the primary way I access my personal email, use Twitter, and read RSS news feeds, and I use Safari quite a lot. With some games on my phone, I haven't used my Nintendo DS in ages. So I thought it might be interesting to list the third-party apps that I use most. Do let me know if I'm missing out on some fantastic apps that you can't live without.

Tweetie is, to my taste, the best Twitter client for the iPhone. It has good features, and is very usable. Its method of refreshing the feed by dragging off the top of the list is excellent, and deserves to be copied by other apps.

Byline is my RSS/Atom newsreader of choice. Having tried various others, both apps and web-based solutions, Byline wins through with its useful link caching, its integration with Google Reader, and its ease of use.

I use Skype a fair bit for work communications, and occasionally for international phone calls. It'll be even handier when the upcoming OS update allows it to run in the background.

National Rail is very useful for checking train times, and for monitoring live departure and arrival times. Takes a lot of pressure out of travelling by train.

I spend a lot of time listening to music through Spotify. This is another app that would really benefit from being able to run as a background process. Roll on iPhone OS 4!

Games-wise, I've had fun with Monkey Ball, Doom Resurrection, and Wild West Guns. I've got Dragon's Lair and Space Ace on the phone, but inevitably haven't played them much (unplayable non-games that they are). Rock Band is excellent, Scrabble works well, and I've enjoyed playing through The Secret of Monkey Island, Beneath a Steel Sky, and Broken Sword: Shadow of the Templars. Oh, and Shotgun Pro, Dice, and MiniPiano are worth having installed for the toy value.

I like Enjoy Sudoku Daily (free and one game at each difficulty each day)Same guy makes Sudoku Joy (free with ads but many games each day) but I find the ads break my concentration. And a paid for Enjoy Sudoku (no adds, many games and enter games from newspapers). Sudoku Grab that toby has is clever, take a photo of the puzzle in the news paper and it can identify it and solve it for you.

PS Mobile is good for cropping & fixing photos.Gorillacam gives you a self timer and multi-shot function (oh and a spirit level)TVGuide is okI use Zenbe List - lets you edit a list on there web site and sync it to your phone to tick things off.

If you are in a wifi network you can use the BBC iPlayer website, the interface is quite usable.

If you are traveling abroad you need to turn off data as it is so expensive. This means google maps will not work. The solution is to buy OffMaps, this lets you download and cache maps of an area before you go and then works without a network. I used this in LA and SanDiego last december and was impressed.

"I spend a lot of time in front of my iPhone. It is the primary way I access my personal email, use Twitter, and read RSS news feeds, and I use Safari quite a lot."

I've had my iPhone 3Gs for 10 months now and I totally agree with what you say. I have a full 11 pages of apps (Roll on Folders feature in OS4) and am constantly using many of them. The only ones I have in common with you are Livejornal, Spotify & Skype and I agree that the multitasking feature will be very usefull. Oh also just spotted I have Mini Piano aswell.